posted by Natalie Munn
Last Saturday, Sept. 20th, many of our students joined with hundreds of thousands of volunteers at 5,583 locations around world for the 29th annual Ocean Conservancy’s International Coastal Cleanup. It is the world’s largest single day volunteer effort to clean up our beaches, lakes, and rivers. Held at the Vineyard Haven Harbor, the Beach Clean Up was organized by our own Katrina Lakis as part of the MVYLI.
Our students from the MVironment Club, as well NHS, some Minnesingers, and others, came ready to collect and catalog trash. Every piece of trash was tracked and counted, and it will be included in the annual index of global marine debris.
Of the 4579 items collected, Maddy Moore tabulated the top three as:
3344 cigarette butts
221 small plastic pieces (smaller than 2.5 cm)
205 food wrappers